Edith Wight can't wait to stay with her uncle - vet to magical animals and beasts - for the Christmas holidays. She's expecting to be reunited with all her friends, both animal and human, and celebrate the holidays together. But one of the few phoenixes left in the world is missing and in peril. The Secret Animal Society heads to a remote part of Bavaria to track down the bird, only to encounter a new foe more deadly and dangerous than they could have possibly imagined - who is using phoenix ashes to create new hybrid beasts to sell to the evil Syndicate . . .